Alabama

YOUR VIEW: Find a way to extend conservation easement insentive

Unless Congress acts in the next few weeks, we will be left without something that benefits everyone in Alabama. Despite remarkable bipartisan support, we may lose an important tax incentive that helps protect clean water, natural areas and working family farms and ranches.

The incentive enhances the federal tax benefit for landowners of modest means who donate conservation easements. These agreements help conserve natural resources important to Alabama while keeping land in productive private ownership.

The enhanced incentive has proven effective, helping land trusts across the country increase the pace of conservation by a third, to over a million acres per year. Conservation Easement Consultants joins America's 1,700 land trusts and their five million supporters in calling on Congress to make this important conservation tool permanent this year.

We encourage Representative Spencer Bachus, Senator Jeff Sessions and Senator Richard Shelby to find a way to extend the conservation easement incentive as part of any year-end tax deal. Thanks to thoughtful landowners and responsible action in Congress, we will be able to conserve even more land in Alabama for years to come.